


Custody

by AidanChase



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-24 14:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/941216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AidanChase/pseuds/AidanChase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short piece I thought of while watching Lilo and Stitch. I imagine Dick and Damian had similar problems to Nani and Lilo while they were first adjusting to life without Bruce.</p><p>Dick isn't Talia's ideal of a guardian for Damian, and threatens to take Damian away if Dick doesn't shape up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Custody

**Author's Note:**

> This was basically more of me just wanting to write bat brat banter. It's probably my favorite thing in the world, so excuse all the other weirdness.

Dick Grayson tugged down on his blue tie, unbuttoned the top of his collar, and collapsed face-first into the couch. Blindly, he reached for the end table and found the stereo system remote. It took him a few buttons to find the one he wanted, but when he did, the manor filled with the voice of Elvis Presley.

Dick laid there for the duration of "Return to Sender" and about half of "Stuck on You," before his relaxation tactic was brutally interrupted.

"Grayson!" Damian's shouts infiltrated the momentary peace he'd found.

Dick groaned into the couch and didn't move. Not even when he heard the library door slam open.

"Grayson!"

He kept his face in the pillows and with the remote still in his hand, turned the volume up. Then Damian swatted him on the back of his head, yanked the remote out of his hand, and turned off the music.

Now Dick sat up. "What?"

"Did you forget my mother is coming?"

Dick rubbed his eyes and yawned. "No."

"Then perhaps you should change."

"I thought the police officer uniform turned most women on."

Damian hit him in the face with the remote.

"Okay, okay. I'm going." He rubbed his cheek where the remote hit him. That actually hurt. He was going to have to talk to Damian about a no-hitting policy.

Things hadn't been easy with Bruce gone. For either of them. They were both out a father, and as the adult, Dick tried to make things stable, tried to be an anchor for a kid who had never had a real family. Not that Damian would say that, but Dick knew what a family was supposed to be, and Damian had never had that.

Dick wasn't Damian's official guardian--yet. That's what this paper work was for. Talia had full rights, as the living parent, but she could grant Dick guardianship. He really hoped she'd be okay with that. And that's why today had to go so well.

He switched into a suit and a different blue tie. One that wasn't GCPD standard.

He glanced in the mirror, tried unsuccessfully to get his bangs to stay to one side, and examined his red cheek. Damian could do with a little less assassin training, in Dick's opinion.

At the bottom of the stairs, he was met by Damian, who took a quick glance over Dick's appearance. Dick opened his mouth to explain to Damian that hitting wasn't an appropriate way to express displeasure, but got interrupted.

"Satisfactory," Damian said, then went to the door.

"No, wait--" Dick groaned and quickly ran after his younger brother.

Damian stood on the steps just at the front of the door and Dick stumbled down behind him just as a black sedan pulled up in front of the manor. The chauffeur got out and opened the door for Talia al Ghul.

Talia was a stunning woman. But other than that, Dick never quite understood what Bruce saw in her personality. Then again Bruce saw things in lots of women with questionable ethics.

Dick watched the way Damian stood at attention, like a soldier in uniform, as his mother walked up the steps. Her glance at Damian was something like mild disapproval, and then it turned into full shock when she looked at Dick. He was suddenly very aware of his hands in his pocket, bangs in his face, and relaxed-shoulders-back stance.

"Uh, hi Talia. Long time, no see."

"Yes. It's been over ten years."

Dick tried not to blush. That had been the year Bruce and Dick had a talk about women coming over and maybe putting locks on doors. That wasn't a talk any boy wanted to have with his dad. Dick never did tell Damian he'd been an accidental witness to his conception. It wasn't a conversation brothers needed to have.

Dick cleared his throat. "Yes, do you want a coffee or a tea? Water, maybe juice?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Talia walked inside without waiting to be invited or led in.

Damian punched Dick in the stomach.

"I'm trying," he muttered, and followed Damian inside.

Talia was already in the parlor room, seated on the couch. Dick sat down across from her, and Damian sat a seat away from Dick.

"So," Dick started, "Ah, are you okay with Damian living here? With me, I mean. I know I'm not Bruce, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to uproot him again, and--"

"I'm unimpressed," she said abruptly. "My son has a destiny, and Bruce Wayne was the right person to tutor him at this stage in his life. You, however, are not. He should return with me to the League of Assassins, where he will continue to undergo training."

"No, wait." Dick leaned forward, eager to convince her otherwise. "Damian's just a kid, you can't--"

"I can assure you, Mother," Damian interrupted, "that my training is sufficient here. Grayson has inherited much of Father's talents, and possesses many of the skills necessary for me to learn."

"I don't need to see anymore from either of you. You hardly have the strength to raise a child."

"Wait a sec, I do too have the strength to raise a child." Dick doubted how well he could do it, but he definitely had a parental level of patience when it came to Damian. "I'm not Bruce and I'm not an assassin, but I think this is the right place for Damian. Just hear us out."

Talia stood. "You have three days to change my mind. Convince me you have the mettle to train him, and I'll reconsider. I would much prefer to leave him with you, as it would inconvenience me to find him a new mentor, but I will do what is best for him."

Dick highly doubted that, but stood anyway and walked her to the door. "Sure. Three days. Promise. You'll be so un-unimpressed you'll be... well, you'll be impressed." Behind him, Dick could hear Damian roll his eyes.

"I highly doubt it," she said, and walked stiffly down the steps of the manor.

As soon as the door was closed, Damian stamped his foot on the marble floor.

"Grayson, you--you idiot! An untrained monkey could behave better than you!"

"Okay, okay, I'll do better next time." Dick tried to wave it off and walked towards the kitchen.

Damian, however, wasn't done, and ran after him. He grabbed Dick's arm and threw him to the ground. Dick grunted as his head whacked the marble tile.

"Okay, we need to institute a no-hitting rule in this house," Dick said and tried to sit up, but Damian sat on his chest and pushed him back down. "Damian, can you--"

Damian shoved his hand over Grayson's mouth. "Listen to me! If you want to impress her you have to do far better than--" Damian quickly pulled his hand away. "Did you just lick me?"

Dick grinned and pushed Damian off of him. "Chill. We'll work it out."

Damian slapped him across the face. "That! That is the attitude that won't help!"

"Can we not with this hitting-thing anymore?"

Damian punched Dick in the face. "Fine! If you don't want me to stay I'll leave now!"

"What--I never said that."

Damian stomped his feet up the stairs angrily. "You're such a pain, Grayson."

"Fine. Maybe I'll give you back to your mom and get a rabbit instead."

"Good. You deserve something as stupid and insignificant as a rabbit."

"Yeah, something a lot fluffier than you. That likes to cuddle!"

"I bet it will smell just as bad as you do!" Damian disappeared down the hall and Dick heard the bedroom door slam shut.

Well, that was a good end to a fight. He got Damian to call him smelly. It was definitely progress in the "get Damian to behave like a real ten-year-old" project. But Dick knew he would have to go patch things up, or Damian might actually run away. So he grabbed some ice out of the freezer for his face, a bag of cookies, and two glasses of milk. He knocked on Damian's door, and opened it without waiting for an answer. He must've looked pretty awkward trying to carry everything as he opened the door with his elbow, because Damian stopped pretending to pack long enough to roll his eyes.

Dick set the cookies and milk on the table and pressed the ice pack to his face. "I brought cookies."

Damian grumpily took a sweatshirt out of the duffel bag and threw it back in. Dick guessed he'd been packing and repacking that same sweatshirt this whole time.

"Damian, you know I don't want a rabbit, right?"

"You're not even trying! I know you could put an act on for her, and I know you could defend yourself far better than you do, but it's like you don't even care!"

Dick heard Damian's voice crack and realized this wasn't a time to joke around anymore. He took the duffel bag off the bed and sat down. "Of course I care. I just think you've had enough people hitting back, okay? I can't help it--I like being myself around you."

"Well, it's stupid." 

Dick grabbed Damian and pulled him into a hug.

"Grayson! Let go!"

"Nope. You want me to be more ruthless? Alright. You're getting a time out for hitting."

"That's not what I meant! Let go of me!"

"Sorry. I'm going to exercise my strength to raise a child. We're going to hug for a full ten minutes and maybe next time you'll think twice about hitting."

Damian said nothing. 

And after about a minute and a half, Dick sighed. "Okay, ten minutes is a really long time." He let go.

But it had the right effect, even if it was 85% shorter than he intended. Because Damian took the cookies and his glass of milk, and sat back down on the bed. 

"I'm sorry I hit you," he said, a bit sullenly. "And I'm sorry I compared you to a monkey. And called you insignificant."

"And smelly."

"No, you're still smelly."

Dick grinned and stole the bag of cookies. "Well, you're definitely still just as cuddly as a rabbit." He wrapped his arm around Damian's shoulders and with his other hand, dunked a cookie in Damian's glass of milk. 

"I have an idea," he said, and cookie crumbs spewed from his mouth as he said it. "Tomorrow," he swallowed the cookie, "we'll go get a dog. A really big mean-looking dog. That'll impress Talia. Make her think of us as intimidating."

Damian was quiet for a moment. Then he finally said, "That's really stupid."

"Good. That's why we're gonna do it."

"Fine. Then it has to have a really vicious, intimidating name."

"I was thinking Ace."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's dumb."

Dick smiled. He liked when Damian talked like an actual kid instead of a Victorian novel. "Alright, fine, then you can name it."

"Titus Andronicus."

"No. That's ridiculous. Ace is better."

"No it's not."

"I'm never letting you borrow my Shakespeare books again."

"Fine. Why not just name him Fluffy and hand us both over to my mother?"

"Right, because naming him after an evil Roman Emperor is so much cooler than Ace."

"It is."

"Is not."

"Is so."

"Is not."

Damian pulled away and glared at Dick. "Do not drag me into this ridiculous form of arguing."

Dick laughed. "Alright, fine. We'll name the dog Titus Andronicus. But I'm going to call him Ace for short."

"That's not even similar."

"Sure it is." Dick stood up and set the bag of cookies back on the dresser. He downed his glass of milk. "Come on, let's go get real dinner. Something ruthless like, I don't know, raw steak."

"If you want to get sick, go ahead," Damian scoffed.

"Fine. I'll order a pizza."

"That's... acceptable."

Dick smiled and walked back downstairs with Damian. This was a good place, for both of them, and he was going to make sure it stayed that way.

**Author's Note:**

> I know Bruce gave Damian Ace/Titus, but I wanted to use him for the Lilo and Stitch parallel. And I'm sorry if Talia was weird. I've never written her before and I don't even particularly like her but I hope I was able to give her some justice, even if I was shoving her into an awkward role to suite the AU/AR story line.


End file.
